4th of July Weekend

FRIDAY...

Because American Samoa is a U.S. Territory, we do celebrate the 4th of July here on the island. The day started off with the huge sale at Ace Hardware where everything you could fit in your bag was 20% off. It was a crazy big production with a raffle, door prizes, and a hot dog stand out front. It was actually the most patriotic display I saw all day. We were handed American flags when we entered the door and were able to pick out all sorts of free flag inspired give-aways when you left depending on how much you spent inside. I got 2 red, white & blue star necklaces, a red, white & blue scrunchie and a U.S.A. lavalere. Total crap, but it was free.

And like many other places back in the states, fireworks are illegal here. The difference is that even though it may be illegal to possess or light off fireworks say, in Denver, you can still go to the Rockies game, Fiddler's Green, 16th Street Mall, or any other number of places to see professional fireworks displays. Not so much here. I didn't see or hear about one single fireworks show anywhere on the island. And on the 4th I didn't hear even one Black Cat or Bottle Rocket being set off. It was pretty wierd actually. But the Ex-Pat group here decided to celebrate our nation's birthday nonetheless with your typical drinking-BBQ-pool-party. We all went out to Haz-Matt's house, who lives out by the cliffs on the ocean. His place is absolutely georgous. It's a giant 3 bedroom house with a huge yard, a pool and it's just a hop, skip, and a jump from the ocean. We went down to the cliffs and watched the crashing waves as our version of fireworks.

Here we are hanging out at the cliffs (Naomi & Emily, me & LTM)...



Back at the house, folks were hanging out in the pool, playing bocce ball, drinking fun drinks out of coconuts that Sam husked from one of Matt's trees, and enjoying some great food including hamburgers, steak, pork chops, fish kabobs, and a home made apple pie.

Here's Aaron making sure he's covered with sunscreen...

Apparently, when I went down to watch the waves crashing into the cliffs, Suka "fell" into the pool. I came back and found her soaking wet and shivering under a bench up against the house. Later I found out that she didn't actually "fall" unless you consider Doug picking her up, putting her in the water, and letting go, "falling." Not cool. The good news was that apparently, she did try to swim. The bad news is now she won't let me get her anywhere near water. Giving her a bath is like trying to catch a greased pig. Thanks Doug.

SATURDAY NIGHT...

The next night we had a lu'au party for Ayla, who was heading off to Japan for a Polynesian dancing job. The party was at Oscar's house (her dad) and it was the BEST party I've been to so far on the island. Everyone had such a good time.



Here's Ayla & Michael all decked out...

The Brownies (Michelle & Sarah)...

New Sam (another Brownie) & Ayla...

Me & LTM...

Emily, Ayla & Sleepy Sam...

Emily & Oscar...

Alyssa, Aaron, Emily, Matt & Doug...

Matt was in rare form that night...


Chef Oscar hard at work...and the pig of course!





Some of Ayla's friends are in a band and they performed a few songs for us.

What a Weekend...Part 3

The weekend didn't end with my new puppy. I also went snorkling for the first time ever. LTM, Julia, Simon (Clif & Julia's 6 year old son), and I all decided to take a trip to Airport Beach. We live right next to the Airport and there is a beach on the other side of the airport that has just about the best snorkling on the island. There are 2 ways to get there. Either you can go on the garbage walk past the dump (uh, no thanks), or you can walk along the cliffs on the ocean. We opted for the more beautiful, less smelly route. This is where the journey begins...




We tried to go to Airport Beach my first weekend here, but we couldn't find the opening in the wall that you have to climb over to get onto the cliffs and while we were searching for it, being the klutz that I am, I totally lost my footing on the wet lava rocks and cut up my knee and hand pretty bad. We didn't make it to Airport that day.

This time we did. And the hike is really easy. You walk along the ocean front on a series of lava-rock cliffs with dotted with blowholes where the waves splash up and out. It really is beautiful.

There are a few spots where you walk along a narrow trail that cuts through some vegitation. As long as you go early enough in the day you don't have to worry too much about spiders and other bugs (other than mosquitos--they are always a problem). But the closer to sundown that you go, it seems that the spiders come alive. On the way to the beach we had to move maybe 1 or 2 spider webs out of our path. But when we came back it was getting dark, and there must have been over 30 big spider webs with spiders in them that were blocking our path back. The person who walks in front needs some kind of stick to move the webs or they could walk face-first into some nastiness.



The beach at Airport is not a sand beach, but rather is made up of crushed coral. So it's not fun to walk around barefoot on.



My snorkling gear hadn't arrived yet (after all I only shipped it a month and a half ago) so I used Julia's sister's equipment. We started out and the current was so strong that we were quickly going to be swept away from where we wanted to go. So we army-crawled under water (about a foot and a half deep at this point) over to a place where the current wasn't so strong and pushed off into the harbor. At first, it was hard to adjust to the thought that I was breathing underwater, and I'm not going to lie, I may have had a minute or two of starting to hyperventilate, but then I relaxed and realized if 6 year old Simon can do this (and he was doing a great job if I do say so myself), then I could certainly do it. And once I let go, it was AMAZING!!! The area that we were in got pretty deep for snorkling on the island (about 20-25 feet in spots) and there was all kinds of coral and fish to check out. The cool thing about snorkling is that when you're out in the woods looking at nature, the animals can hear you coming and they take off, but in the water, the fish don't swim away--they just look back at you like, "yes, can I help you?" It was also kind of wierd to realize that this entire other world is just below the surface. I can't wait to go back.

Here are a few shots from the walk back at sunset...

What a Weekend...Part 2

Sunday, my life here on the island changed.



I woke up, walked out my front door and was greeted by Everett, the 8 year old who lives across the street. Everett begins to tell me that he has a present for me. Apparently, one of the wild dogs here in Lion's Park was pregnant and Clif & Julia (Everett's parents) had been feeding her when she came around in hopes of keeping her healthy and strong for the puppies. Well, that morning mom showed up with one of her puppies and abandoned it on Clif & Julia's doorstep. Mom started to leave and when the puppy tried to follow it, mom just took off. Ruth, Julia's sister who is here for the summer, tried to get the mom to take the puppy back, but she wasn't having any of it. Puppy was homeless.

I had mentioned to Clif & Julia in previous conversations that I was thinking about getting a puppy here. I had been wanting a dog for a while back home, but I lived in an apartment, worked crazy hours, and just didn't think it would be fair to the dog to bring it into that kind of situation. But here, my work hours are flexible, I live in a house with tons of space to run, and since many of the palagis have puppies of their own, everyone seems ok with bringing them to many of our gatherings. So when Clif came over with this rolly-polly hunk of fur, I fell in love. She was maybe 4 weeks old and just the sweetest little lover you'd ever seen. She just wanted to nuzzle right up to my neck and after I held her, that was it. I never wanted to let her go.

Her name is Suka. It means sugar in Samoan. How could you not love that face?

Check out the Harty's Blog for more on Suka.

What A Weekend...Part 1

This weekend was jam packed with excitement. I went to a new island, snorkled for the first time ever, and got a puppy!

Saturday morning a group of about 13 of us decided to take a trip to Anu'u, which is a small island off the east coast of our island of Tutuila. We all decided to meet at Aaron and Naomi's house before we set sail on our Saturday adventure. They live on the east side of the island and knowing the drinking habits of this group, there was no way everyone would be on time for a 10:00 am departure. Slowly but surely, everyone trickled in. Aaron made real coffee, which was a treat since most places in American Samoa only sell the instant stuff. As we waited for everyone to arrive, we sat out on their porch, which overlooks the ocean. It was so peaceful I could have sat there looking at that view all day. Eventually everyone arrived and we made our way to the docks where we took a water taxi across the ocean. Our water taxi and the docks:

Here's a view of Anu'u from the water taxi as the ride over begins:

And although this isn't from my trip, here's a video of the water taxi ride to Anu'u:



I know what you're thinking...beautiful view, crystal clear water, ocean breeze blowing in your hair, what more could you ask for, right? Well, let's just say I have a "small" fear of open water and the big blue ocean. So while everyone else was enjoying the scenic boat ride, I was white knuckling the railing with my stomach in my throat and praying the boat wouldn't wouldn't flip over with the next gust of wind. Normally for that short of a ride I think I'd be fine, but this boat felt like it weighed about 10 pounds and was only moving at about 8 MPH (I figured, because if it went any faster it would capsize with the next swell of the sea). Despite my fears, we made it to Anu'u and spent the day hiking all over the island. Here are some shots of our journey...

The two shots above are both views of our island of Tutuila from the shores of Anu'u. The next few shots are the beginning of our hike around Anu'u: I don't have any shots from the bulk of the hike in which we went up and over the highest point on the island because we were trudging through the mud uphill for most of it and you basically have to watch your feet the whole time to make sure you don't fall. I had my camera in my hand for part of it, but LTM made me put it away because she has come to learn what a klutz I am and knew that at some point I very well may fall and we didn't want to destroy the camera on the way down. Half way through the first part of the hike, we arrived at the cliffs on the other side of Anu'u. They were georgous. See for yourself:



We hung out at the cliffs for a bit just taking in the beauty.

Here's Luke (an attorney from New Zealand who also works at the AG's office) taking a break.

Here's another shot of the sandy wall along the cliffs just below where Luke is sitting:

After our little rest stop at the cliffs, we continued our hike back through the jungle of Anu'u. When the jungle cleared, we found ourselves at the perfect spot for a swim:

After a while it looked like some rainclouds were rolling in...

So we headed out in search of the infamous quicksand lake. We found the turn-off that led to the lake and walking through tree covered path felt like we were in another world entirely. It was very Blair Witch....

Because the last ferry back to Tutuila leaves at 4pm, we had to hustle back to the docks to make sure we weren't stuck there over night. So we had a Grizwald-Grand Canyon kind of moment and were back on the trail.

That night we had a poker party at Aaron's house for Markus' bachelor party. I was the first one out. Oh well. Aaron also make some fantastic pizza's for dinner that night. I didn't know he had it in him. I was pretty impressed with his chef's skills. However, Aaron is a bit of a hot sauce fan, and he made one pizza with a CRAZY hot sauce. So hot...that just touching the bite to your lips sent your face on fire. So hot...that after eating one tiny slice, Matt went to use the restroom and because he hadn't washed his hands before he used the facilities, the burning fire was transferred to other parts of his body. So hot...that the bottle of the hot sauce Aaron used on that pizza had a freakin' skull & cross-bones on it! Duh, last time I checked, that meant poison! Or here, burning flesh for the next several hours. Needless to say, I'm sticking to the regular pizza from now on.

That was Saturday.